OVL & Cairn boost India’s Energy Security

OVL acquires oil block in Columbia; Cairn hikes crude production in Mangala

India’s energy security got a boost last week when ONGC’s overseas arm OVL succeeded in bagging an oil block in latin American country of Columbia. The oil block is located in north-western Columbia near La Creciente natural gas field. The oil block has been awarded as equal joint venture between Columbia and OVL, which will remain property of Columbian government. The awarded block is 550km long and has total area of 2.7 Lac hectares. The OVL consortium will initially invest USD 23mn in first phase of the exploration.

In another development, the Cairn India announced that it will increase the production capacity of its Mangala oilfields to 175,000 barrels per day from present 65,000 bpd. This would increase Mangala oilfields contribution to 25% of the present domestic production capacity. Increase in production capacity will help India in reducing its oil import bill and further securing in energy needs.